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I believe I’ve mentioned it before, but tule fog is unique to these here parts this time of year:

“Tule fog (pronounced /?tu?li?/) is a thick ground fog that settles in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento Valley areas of California‘s Great Central Valley. Tule fog forms during the late fall and winter (California’s rainy season) after the first significant rainfall. The official time frame for tule fog to form is from November 1 to March 31. This phenomenon is named after the tule grass wetlands (tulares) of the Central Valley. Accidents caused by the tule fog are the leading cause of weather-related casualties in California.” (Wikipedia)

Aside from reminding folks to exercise caution whilst driving about in the fog, it’s also a cue to start bundling up in earnest! It makes me especially glad to have this brand new wool coat from Tulle. It’s my third coat from them – I have a snazzy pink one and another soft robin’s egg blue brocade – and the shiny black faux fur collar it came with is detachable, so you can play around and swap it out for any vintage numbers you have in your closet.

I am so into this shade of green right now that we just bought a new sofa that matches it. Our other sofa (a sleeper that’s seen many of our lovely houseguests) is more of a split pea soup green, and I am giddy about seeing how the two play off each other when the new one arrives later this week!

Here’s a sneak peek:

If you’re anything like me, it doesn’t matter how many coats are in your closet, how well-loved or made, each winter a new one begs to be added to your wardrobe. I surprised M by my intense recollection of a supple, buttery camel coat I tried on in 2005. It had a fur collar and was Narciso Rodriguez.

If you need a little inspiration, here are some of my current favorites (also from Tulle!) below:

I love the colors that pop and the bold patterns that say absolutely anything but humdrum wintry hues.

Let’s move on. Welcome to the little sitting nook in our new bedroom. Antique silver trays carry pretty bottles of perfume, while a miniature birdbath carries tiny, precious vials of obscure, hard to find fragrance. A tiny silk pillow filled with lavender says DREAM. The branches hold baubles and a birdcage whose sole purpose is to provide whimsy sits atop the vintage table. Atop a single pillar sits an Archipelago Botanicals candle in Havana (it’s our favorite, smelling gently of handsome tobacco).

I cut up our old Ikea duvet to use as this toile tablecloth, and a pen, notecards and matches in a beautifully ornate little box are tucked safely away in the hidden drawer. I can’t wait to put some art up on the facing walls! It’s a perfectly serene and cozy little nook.

Boots + Fur Collar: Vintage
Tights: Gap
Raw Silk Tunic: Banana Republic
Long Black Vest: Calvin Klein
Coat: Tulle

At long last, I’ve acquired two matching wardrobes to bring some order to the femme side of the bedroom. After looking for MONTHS for something wide enough / deep enough / tall enough / compact enough to fit into my car, I settled on a pair of secondhand Ikea Aneboda wardrobes. I know, I know. Fucking hateful Ikea! Even my Target Shabby Chic dresser and vanity set cringe being next to them.

You’ll note the wardrobe on the right is reserved for dresses ONLY, with a handful of long coats. The left is for slacks, blouses, blazers, shorter coats, skirts and the like.

However, they’re $100 apiece brand new and I only paid $70 total for both of them, which is great because I’ll definitely be smashing them and setting them on fire letting them go when we move next year as I AM NEVER MOVING ANYPLACE THAT HASN’T GOT AMPLE CLOSEST SPACE AGAIN, so help me God. You do not even want to know what the “before” looked like (though I know some of you out there have and lived to tell), but the chaos is now controlled on my side, and M has the whole (wee) closet to herself. I even rooted through my things (which have been whittled and whittled down some more since we moved here in July) and set them aside for donating, and cleaned out any makeup I never use, or seemed questionable.

I may or may not have found a pup-o hiding in my clothes.

As an apology of sorts for all these months of hogging up M’s space, encroaching on her side and making her walk through a femme mine field day in and day out, I lined her slacks up all neatly, arranged her dry-cleaned shirts just so and put all of her shoes in an orderly row. I also tidied up her nightstand, which is the least I can do since there were piles of discarded jewelry of mine all over it. (I’ve a very bad habit of nearly falling asleep with my jewelry on, sleepily clawing it off and depositing it all into M’s waiting hand – in the dark! – because I can’t reach my own nightstand.)

It feels good! Not as good as living in Mexico might, and not as good as it did when our walk-in, en suite closet was twice the size of our current bathroom, but as good as it’s going to get in this particular SF flat! I don’t know how the rest of the city does it!

*Note: I am NOT thinking about how all the clothes in two tall rolling baskets of laundry will fit into these babies. I’ll think about that tomorrow.

CONFESSION: Well, kittens, the weekend is winding to a close. It was a doozy! We restocked the bar at home and hunted for antiques and thrift store finds on Friday night. Saturday morning we tidied up for a nice, mellow Welcome Back visit for a dear friend, who just returned from her two-month long visit back home in Turkmenistan. She brought me back a beautiful bag, repurposed from the gorgeous material of a traditional bridal headress – will feature in a new FFAF ASAP! Sadly, during the visit a nasty migraine came on quite suddenly, but I fought it back with insanely spicy Indian food (a total first and kind of amazing). Later in the evening, M & I headed to the DNA Lounge for New Wave City in these outfits! It was the Duran Duran tribute and so, so much fun. A little too fun, in fact, so M & I spent the entire delicious day in bed, giggling and watching HGTV and taking naps. WHY DID I NOT KNOW THAT HGTV IS SO FASCINATING AND AWESOME TO WATCH!? Speaking of hella gay…

This antique table? See how pretty and awesome it is? The top is all junked up, so we got it for $50. Totally freaking hot. We’re going to sand it down and give it a nice, light wash and perhaps get in touch with the amazing artist that painted the Victorian Alice In Wonderland chairs to see if she’ll paint the tabletop with a tea party scene, because that would be, of course, perfect. I also got the really cool idea to take these three smaller photo frame collages and hang them in a grouping, inside of the antique frame that we picked up a year ago at the Laney flea. Since we took all of those silly, romantical photos carrying the frame together the day we were married last year, I thought it would be very dreamy to mix those photos with some others from our wedding. There you have it! The “nook of love”. Who wants to come over for a cup of tea?

CONFESSION: It’s been too long! Two weeks and then some too long, to be specific. You know what happened? The fog rolled in, bringing with it a traditionally chilly SF summer, sending my preexisting  nesting state into a disoriented cocoon of warmth and quiet and respite. (Translation: I wore a lot of jeans and hoodies. I spent a lot of time searching for the perfect down comforter – Calvin Klein, for the record – to stop the chattering of my teeth in bed at night and so that we snuggle each other out of free will like we used to, instead of clinging together desperately just for warmth. I fussed with all of the bottles and things at my new vanity and begged the Gods for motivation to put my curlers in. When no motivation came, I watched Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy.) I hope y’all forgive me and that we can all just MOVE ON from this terrible, awful stagnation.

So, the vanity! Isn’t it darling? I really am in love it. It brings me tremendous joy and pride to sit on my little padded bench, with everything so easy to get to, and with it so prettily displayed, it’s a highly effective way to stop wanting to buy every last shiny new cosmetic I see out and about. (This principle is the same reason I had the beast and have the new mini-beast for my shoes and bags.) Plus, it’s very fancy. This is a little sneak peek at my side of the bedroom, but M & I are still working on it, so you’ll see more very soon.

I’ll also be sharing the kitchen and dining next, followed by the living and sun rooms. We are so, so close to being done and able to just be in our space and enjoy it without that little nudge to tinker with things until they are just so. It’s so wonderful when life is just so, and I’m closer than ever.

Fill me in on your goings-on in the comments! What have I missed!?

Confession: I love it when M makes me whiskey-cokes at home, because she serves them in these wee, adorable glasses we bought at Ikea after seeing them at our friend’s lovely home for Sunday brunch a few weeks ago. They’ve got elephants and  birdies and penguins and flowers on them. They’re so fucking weird and perky. I love them! Anyway, M cuts about a third off the straws (we have, like, 500+ straws because I refuse to drink cold beverages without them, with the exception of other cocktails and bottled beer and water, shut up), that’s the best part. The wee straws to go with the wee glasses carrying the not-so-wee contents!

Look, I’ve found a photo of them for you. And you should totally buy some, too! They come in orange. (Bangmaster, I know you want that, to go with your TRADEMARK nails, as only you know.)

EXCITING BREAKING NEWS: This morning, M was all, “We’re going on a secret mystery date. SSH! Don’t ask me any questions. It’s very serious. Bring a purse that you can throw your Moleskine into. In fact, start with the purse, and THEN pick out your outfit.” So, I got ready with nary a clue where we were headed, and off we went. She drove me all around Oakland and I caught on and said, “You’re trying to disorient me on purpose!” – which, by the way, is impossible to do. She’s very sneaky. Well, the date – contrary to the suspicions of some – was NOT at a sex den, shooting range or some hidden San Francisco gem. She took me to Best Buy to test drive the new camera of my choice for my birthday! I was completely thrilled and overwhelmed, having outgrown my Sony Cybershot digital camera long ago. We must have been in there for a few hours, tinkinering with several models based on M’s preliminary research (sneaky!) and my own baseless lust, and finally narrowed the choices down to a couple of digital SLRs and high-end digital cameras. Shoving my chronic desire for instant gratification aside, I bravely took M’s hand and said that I wanted to do more research and model comparisons at home. M supported this, reminding me that they didn’t have the Panasonic Lumix model she’d researched before, and that I might want to test-drive some more in person before deciding.

Alas, I came home, did some research and promptly fell in love with the Panasonic Lumix G1 w/ Leica 14-44mm Lens Kit “anti-SLR” with interchangeable lenses. I LOVE IT SO MUCH ALREADY. Turns out there’s no place I could have test-driven it out here, because no one is carrying it yet (it just came out in November of last year). Still, based on countless reviews, I think it’s going to be fantastic and M is seriously the best, most amazing and dreamy husband ever. She’s excited that I’m so excited, and that, my friends, is true love!

Pls. to meet my shiny new toy: